ELSAH, IL - The Principia Men's Basketball team hosted the Blackburn Beavers today in the SLIAC Game of the Week. Unfortunately, due to covid protocols, the Panthers found out they would have to play this game without their dominant big man,
Clark Davidson. After losing to the Beavers the first time they played this season, the Panthers knew it would be a tough task to beat them shorthanded this time, so they hoped to start the game with some good energy and try to make a statement.
Blackburn was able to get on the board first at the start the game, and they maintained their lead throughout the first half. Blackburn's tough defense forced Principia to be fairly stagnant offensively, causing a lot of frustration for the Panthers. Principia was able to stay within striking distance thanks to some short runs on the shoulders of
Jake Kampf and
AJ Byrd. Despite the contested first half, the Beavers knocked down a big three with a minute to go to put them up six going into the break.
The second half started strong for Blackburn, upping their lead to 11 in the first 90 seconds. The Panthers tried to battle back, but continued to struggle for much of the second half to get anything going offensively without Davidson's presence. The Panthers didn't give up, and while they had a few good moments on both ends to build on, Blackburn proved too tough to make a comeback on as the Principia ultimately fell 68-56.
Good To Know: AJ Byrd led the Panthers with 14 points and 10 rebounds, adding 4 assists.
Nathan Brantingham scored 10 points and grabbed 8 boards, while
Jake Kampf finished with 13 points and 3 rebounds. Freshman
Charley Hoffman came in and played well off the bench with 7 points and 3 rebounds in 13 minutes of play.
Up Next: The Panthers will travel to Louisville, KY on Tuesday for a very important matchup with Spalding University at 7:30 pm EST (6:30 pm CST). Spalding is the team right behind Principia in the conference standings, so this game could be the difference in which team gets to host a quarterfinal game in the upcoming SLIAC Tournament. The link to the live stream can be found on the Men's Basketball schedule.
